Start – activities are those things the team will begin doing in the next cycle.

Stop – looks back at the previous cycle of the project to identify which things didn’t work and should cease.

Continue – identifies things that worked in the previous cycle and need to be part of the team’s core activities.

Why do a start stop continue retrospective?

The start stop continue retrospective is one of the simplest project review techniques and requires no special equipment or knowledge to complete.

This technique starts by identifying actions that team members think they should “do.” The method differs from Agile and 4Ls Retrospectives which develop ideas and issues requiring solutions first and THEN develop an action plan.

This retrospective technique:

Gives teams an opportunity to review how they are going and identify improvements they can implement in the future.

Makes it easier for teams to clarify issues, weight the impact of ideas, and reach a consensus based on shared priorities.

Is very action orientated and provides momentum and energy for the team. Each item on the list results in behavioral change.

Start stop continue retrospective template

Start

As with “stop” activities, consider both technical and behavioral aspects. If they work they can go onto the continue list in the next review.

Stop

Activities that:

are inefficient

waste time or resources

have a negative impact on the way people feel or the way things work

Activities on this list may be technical or behavioral things and should cease.

Continue

Activities the team has tried and were successful but are not yet part of common practice.

Once the activities are part of the way things are done, add them to procedure manuals and checklists and remove from this list.

How to run a start stop continue retrospective

A start stop continue retrospective is one of the simplest review tools. It require no specialized equipment or skills, other than the ability to facilitate group discussions.

If the review team is scattered over different locations, there are challenges ensuring everyone is involved. Facilitators may need to look beyond the usual sticky notes and whiteboards to video conferencing, web-based applications such as Google Docs, and specialized online collaboration tools such as GroupMap.

Most start stop continue retrospectives will take less than 20 minutes. You can time-box stages of the process to keep the team on track.

Brainstorm

Discuss and populate the three columns of the start stop continue retrospective template.

Group

Discuss and group any common themes.

Vote

Vote on the key areas you need to take action on.

Share

Share and communicate the outcomes of the session to relevant stakeholders.

Team members think about what actions they should start, stop, and continue doing as a team. This step can be done individually or in small groups, then combined to reflect the whole team’s outlook.

Use a whiteboard or poster paper with sticky notes, an online document such as Google Docs, or a specialized online collaboration tool such as GroupMap.

The important idea in this step is that items must be “activities” as opposed to the “ideas” generated by other review techniques such as 4L’s and Agile Retrospectives. The items in each list are already actions, so the action planning step is not necessary.

Make each action visible to the whole group so they can be discussed, clarified, and challenged where necessary, to ensure shared understanding.

Compile and distribute a report on the retrospective outcomes to the team. GroupMap automatically generates visually appealing reports and action plans in several formats for distribution, saving time and effort after the analysis.

Save effort, time, and money with GroupMap

Getting your best people together to work on strategy is critical to the success of your business. But group activities have an opportunity cost and it’s essential to optimize your time and effort. GroupMap is the effective way to brainstorm, discuss, and decide, and solves many of the problems commonly associated with group activities.

Whether you have your best minds together in the same room, or distributed around the world, GroupMap’s unique technology allows groups of up to 2000 to submit ideas independently at separate times, from different places, in different timezones. Prevent dominant personalities swaying the group, drowning out the opinions of others – GroupMap allows everyone to brainstorm independently then effortlessly combines that information to reveal the full spectrum of ideas. GroupMap templates keep the objective front and center throughout the session, keeping everyone on task. This ensures the activity identifies actionable issues rather than becoming just a discussion on ideas. GroupMap gives you all the group decision making tools you need to prioritize, decide and take action.

Create your first map and invite people in to start sharing their thoughts right NOW. Experience the power of GroupMap with our 14-day, no risk, FREE trial. You don’t even need to provide your credit card details to access to all of our features, including the entire suite of templates, for a full 14 days.